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Last Updated on January 11, 2024
As digital innovations continue transforming how we work, play, and learn, it was only a matter of time before we started seeing high-tech solutions in the kitchen. Recently, tech companies at CES 2024 demonstrated a varied lineup of kitchen tech that is sure to change how — and how much — we cook. From chef-like robots to AI-powered appliances and specialized machines for cocktail-mixing and ice cream-making, the food and beverage world faces as many digital transformations as other sectors and industries.
Of the many digital innovations made to ease kitchen work, augmented reality (AR) shows promise in its accessibility. Instead of throwing out your kitchen appliances for new, AI-powered ones, you only need a pair of smart glasses or an AR headset. Based on data from Statista, the AR headset and glasses market was valued at $2.4 billion in 2023, with a projected growth to over $9 billion by 2027. Industry experts also predict AR products will likely grow in reach in the coming years.
Look no further if you’re wondering how AR technology and smart glasses will impact cooking and kitchen life. Below, we’ll highlight some key features of AR and smart glasses today and how they can be used to enhance your cooking experience:
Capturing the cooking process
Eyewear brand Ray-Ban’s collaboration with Meta may not be the first piece of tech that comes to mind when you think of kitchen innovations, but they’re one of the best smart glasses on the market today for capturing and documenting. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are equipped with a built-in 12MP camera and mics so wearers can easily capture images and video. Wearers can also easily live stream cooking sessions to Meta platforms like Instagram or Facebook.
Documenting your kitchen activities is a great way to share new recipes and dishes with friends and loved ones. The first-person perspective videos and streams will help you stand out if you run a food blog or vlogging channel. Beyond these use cases, you may simply want to document your cooking because it’s a brand new dish you learned from the Internet or your mom’s cookbook. Either way, smart glasses allow you to do all that hands-free to ensure you don’t burn or overcook anything in the process.
Augmenting cooking information
Back to augmented reality technology, having AR glasses or a headset can help you view essential cooking or kitchen information while still seeing your real-world environment. The new Kittch AR app, in partnership with Qualcomm, integrated AR features into its cooking mode. By plugging in AR glasses into a mobile phone, wearers can view interactive videos and recipes, set timers, and even order ingredients via AR gesture control.
Aside from viewing virtually augmented media, your AR headset or glasses can also serve as a handy kitchen assistant that displays useful information in the kitchen. This can include an interactive ingredients list so you can stay on top of your cooking process, or even popups to convert and distinguish US and UK measuring units. It would also help convert the different measuring units for liquid and dry ingredients to ensure your dishes use the right amount of butter, oil, and other ingredients.
Learning from walkthroughs
Finally, to combine both augmented reality and smart glasses, you can also learn cooking techniques and entire recipes by cooking alongside walkthroughs. These captured video tutorials can be augmented via your AR glasses or headset, so you don’t have to keep checking your phone, laptop, or printed cookbook while cooking and prepping. At the same time, these video walkthroughs can be recorded via smart glasses to provide an immersive and instructional first-person view of the process.
In a future where AR and smart glasses are normalized in the kitchen, it won’t be so farfetched to expect this cycle of content sharing and learning to grow. After all, the joy of cooking is better enjoyed with other people. With social media making us more connected than ever and smart technologies making it easier to capture and create cooking content, it’ll be fascinating to see these digital innovations make cooking a more engaging experience for many.
